Let SMS do the work for you with SkyCreek’s eContact text messaging for business.

Businesses today rely on automated workflows to create efficiencies wherever they can. Shaving mere minutes off employees’ tasks can save companies money over time that can free up the funds for another employee, new office equipment, professional development, or expansion. For businesses to effectively retain today’s employees, they need their staff to focus on high-value efforts. Unfortunately, for many team members in customer support, field service, sales, and billing, time is wasted navigating customer inquiries, confirming appointments, and sending updates. Automated text messaging takes the busywork out of these tasks by creating trackable and effective communications that address key customers issues with little agent oversight.

Businesses in many sectors can use automated text messaging optimize their customer communications. At SkyCreek, our financial, utilities, healthcare, and telecommunications clients use our eContact text message platform to text customers vital information that saves ample time and money. Here’s how.

Appointment Reminders

Missed and no-show appointments aren’t just frustrating for businesses, they’re enormously costly. For healthcare alone, a Health Management Technology study found that missed appointments in the U.S. costs the industry $150 billion dollars. Businesses rely on appointment confirmations to adequately staff their operations. When customers don’t respond to repeated attempts at confirming appointments, it leaves businesses with open slots and staff without a direction. Text message reminders are the most effective way to communicate with customers for appointment reminders and confirmations. Four out of five Generation X respondents of a 2018 study indicated they prefer a text over other channels for appointment reminders.

Timely Alerts

Just as businesses want to get the latest updates from customers, customers also want to hear updates from businesses when the time strikes. When businesses take the proactive approach to alerting customers about service delays, recent outages, or last-minute appointment changes, there is a much higher likelihood of maintaining a positive experience with the affected customers. Plus, you might just be edging out your competitors. 66% of consumers would like to receive service notifications via text, but only 23% of businesses send them this way.

Surveys

Direct customer feedback is one of the most valuable datasets for businesses. Not only do you gain relevant and firsthand assessments from customers, but it can also lead to discoveries in staff performance, product performance, and gaps in service. Text messaging, especially just after a customer-business interaction, is the best chance at gathering feedback. And since 89% of customers want to text message with businesses, it’s the best channel to start collecting that critical feedback. By setting up automated text survey links and subsequent reminders to customers, they have every chance to leave either a quick 1-5 rating or a detailed review. And they can do so without your staff hounding them for answers.

Inbound Inquiries

Providing text message options to customers to contact you for issues is a surefire way to improve relations and keep customer communications timely, relevant, and efficient. Giving customers a short-code (i.e. HELP for technical issues) is a common, but vital, asset for businesses who want to make their text message communications work for them. Using automation, you can gather a substantial amount of information – and even satisfy customer issues – before it ever gets to an agent.

Before You Start Texting

Before you use SMS to automate your customer communications, businesses need to be aware of the potential compliance and branding issues with this text messaging for business. Partner with a text message platform who can ensure your communications meet local, national, and international regulations, depending on where you do business . The consequences of non-compliance can result in enormous fees and diminished customer loyalty. Here at SkyCreek, we make sure any company that uses text messaging for business – whether for marketing, appointment reminders, surveys, and more – is supported with the following.

Compliance

As carriers continue to crack down on compliance standards, SkyCreek operates under strict parameters to ensure our clients are compliant with communicating their terms of service, offering customer short codes, and more.

SMS Validation

Businesses may have numbers for customers that are not SMS viable. Before clients launch their text message campaign, SkyCreek conducts an audit to see if existing numbers are SMS viable. For any non-valid SMS numbers, we automatically categorize those contacts for phone or email communications so they are still in the loop for important communications.

Opt-In/Opt-Out Policies

Customers and carriers are cracking down on businesses who do not remove customers from opt-out lists. Any opt-in/opt-out policies that our clients have are regularly and transparently communicated to customers to avoid landing in hot water.

With SkyCreek’s eContact platform, clients can design their own text message campaign. But we don’t expect you to do it all on your own. We guide customers through the onboarding process and help them continue to optimize their automated communications along the way. To start your own text message campaign, get a free demo of eContact today.